Thoughts on football, books, and life in general

A sport for crazy people

“This is a sport for crazy people,” — I think many Birmingham City fans would agree with that. After watching some good football in our loss to Leeds, who among us would have predicted the shambolic performance against Wigan? For me, this unpredictability is part of the attraction of the game though I appreciate it more when an unexpected win follows a terrible loss. That was the context of the quote above by Luis Enrique, commenting on his team’s comeback victory in the Champions League.

Arsenal’s experience in the Champions League was dismal and some of their fans called for their manager to leave. A Guardian report discussed the different reactions of the two managers “with Luis Enrique, a 46-year-old with six years of management behind him, set to leave the Camp Nou because he is apparently exhausted. Wenger, with decades at the sharp end behind him, feels nothing of the sort. ‘It just sums it up that two weeks ago he was an idiot and everyone said you have to leave, so he said: “OK, I go.” Today he is a hero,’ Wenger said. ‘I feel all right. I feel very strong, very motivated, ready to give my best.’”

Gianfranco Zola has said that he doesn’t back off from problems and as long as people are following him, he will carry on. I don’t know how he’ll feel after the game at Cardiff today. Respect to the travelling Blues fans; I hope they will see a good performance and/or a good result. In this game, anything is possible.